ak362 wrote:Things I wish I knew before starting BarBri: CMR is credited, lectures hit or miss/not so much.

Reading/outlining the CMR for MBE subjects: credited.

Reading/outlining the CMR for essay subjects: way more than you need to pass.

In the introductory lecture for the MA course they definitely said there was way more stuff on the paced program than anyone could do in a day, and that generally we should consider reading to be the lowest priority. That's not really a sour grape, as it's no excuse for my laziness, but it is a thing they definitely said.

They also told us not to waste our time just ready essay questions and answers. Then in the MA Essay workshop that is exactly what the guy told us to do. Barbri's advice doesn't have to be perfect, but I'd appreciate it if they took a stab at being consistent.

ak362 wrote:Things I wish I knew before starting BarBri: CMR is credited, lectures hit or miss/not so much.

Reading/outlining the CMR for MBE subjects: credited.

Reading/outlining the CMR for essay subjects: way more than you need to pass.

This. Use everything they give you for the MBE subjects. Just get the basics down for the state subjects. You get less bang for your buck. Also, they repeat the same kinds of questions for the state essay topics, at least in California. So it's a lot more effective to focus on practice essays and essay strategy rather than bulldozing your way through the CMR for state topics.

Glad to know someone else thinks this is TCR.

Also, for most CA state essays, there are one or two things that are on ~3/4 of the essays, so you need to know them in and out (e.g., personal jurisdiction; duty of loyalty for PR) while other stuff you don't need to know nearly as well.

We concluded in the Lounge thread that the MPQ2 releaseds are probably too old to be helpful.

The source I've found for good, free released questions that are recent is the 2010 edition of Emanuel's MBE book. It has ~500 released questions from 1998-2009 tests. My school had it on reserve at the library.

There's also a 2003 edition that is OK too but it contains mostly old questions like the MPQ2.

For reference, I was getting 65-70% on Barbri StudySmart and more like 70-80% on the Emanuel's released questions.

Regarding property specifically, I didn't notice a huge difference. The fact patterns tend to be a little shorter and less convoluted.

wiseowl wrote:We concluded in the Lounge thread that the MPQ2 releaseds are probably too old to be helpful.

The source I've found for good, free released questions that are recent is the 2010 edition of Emanuel's MBE book. It has ~500 released questions from 1998-2009 tests. My school had it on reserve at the library.

There's also a 2003 edition that is OK too but it contains mostly old questions like the MPQ2.

For reference, I was getting 65-70% on Barbri StudySmart and more like 70-80% on the Emanuel's released questions.

Regarding property specifically, I didn't notice a huge difference. The fact patterns tend to be a little shorter and less convoluted.

The 2010 Strategies & Tactics book is TCR. They are much easier than BarBri's though - I am consistently above 80%, and have gone over 90% on some sets.

wiseowl wrote:We concluded in the Lounge thread that the MPQ2 releaseds are probably too old to be helpful.

The source I've found for good, free released questions that are recent is the 2010 edition of Emanuel's MBE book. It has ~500 released questions from 1998-2009 tests. My school had it on reserve at the library.

There's also a 2003 edition that is OK too but it contains mostly old questions like the MPQ2.

For reference, I was getting 65-70% on Barbri StudySmart and more like 70-80% on the Emanuel's released questions.

Regarding property specifically, I didn't notice a huge difference. The fact patterns tend to be a little shorter and less convoluted.

The 2010 Strategies & Tactics book is TCR. They are much easier than BarBri's though - I am consistently above 80%, and have gone over 90% on some sets.

I'm beginning to wonder if I really screwed up and just didn't study right at all for this thing. I got my essay scores back from the Kaplan NJ practice Exam. I scored a 109, which I mentioned earlier, on the final MBE practice. Kaplan says we should consider our score to be 30 points higher on the real thing (15 for the scale, 15 pts worth for easier questions), which would bring me to a 139. On the 7 essays I got 2 essays that scored "well below the standard", 2 were "below the standard" but barely, 2 essays "met the standard", & 1 essay "exceeded the standard". I have no idea what those scores would translated into points for the actual NJ essays. I got marked down for missing a few issues on the ones that fell below the standard. I think I can pick those up over the course of the next few days working exclusively with essays.

In case anyone had the same question I had above - I figured it out after calling softest. As long as when you open softest and hit launch softest you can see the 4 actual files you are all set for the exam.

attractive_NUisance wrote:In case anyone had the same question I had above - I figured it out after calling softest. As long as when you open softest and hit launch softest you can see the 4 actual files you are all set for the exam.

Sauer Grapes wrote:I got a 55 or 56% on the BarBri Sim MBE. I always heard that barbri questions were harder, but then I took the 18 question sample on the MBE's website and did the same. At least I still have time to learn the stuff.

18 questions is not a big enough sample to draw a valid conclusion. I took a 20 question Qbank quiz on Kaplan the other day and got 50%. Out of 200 questions I got 66%.

I'd imagine they put some of the tougher questions in the 18 question sample too.

Wondering if anyone else can compare their performance on the 18 question MBE sample (available at --LinkRemoved--) with how they're doing on Barbri MPQs?

Haven't been doing great on the Barbri sets (around their benchmark for sets 1-4, but waaay below for sets 5-6), and I got 13/18 on the linked sample questions. This isn't too different from Barbri, and makes me worried given that my jurisdiction requires around 70% to pass.

Thoughts? Considering buying the NCBE questions, but it's unclear whether they come with explanations, or whether it's worth the $125. If anyone who's already bought them can comment on their usefulness, that would be super.

I'm also considering purchasing the NCBE 3 exam pack. I'm unclear though, are those questions from previous exams or mock questions created by NCBE? For anyone that purchased, did you find them helpful?

Just took the Barbri set of 13 NY MC questions for evidence. I got TWO right.

My confidence is shaken right now. I know it's only 10% of the bar, but my performance on the NYMC frightens me. My practice MBE was a bit above average, and most of my essays are 3-5, but I've got a pit in my stomach right now.

AdamatUCF wrote:Just took the Barbri set of 13 NY MC questions for evidence. I got TWO right.

My confidence is shaken right now. I know it's only 10% of the bar, but my performance on the NYMC frightens me. My practice MBE was a bit above average, and most of my essays are 3-5, but I've got a pit in my stomach right now.

Thanks. And lol - I just got 2/13 right on evidence. I'm going to chalk it up to being pre-occupied because I just got an interview and was barely reading the questions. But still 2.... geeze. I think it's break time before doing the rest of these.

PitchO20 wrote:I did the same thing. 3/13 on Evidence in the NYMC and I did fairly well on it on the simulated MBE. I'm gonna hold off on the rest of the NYMC because it's just frustrating the hell out of me.

I think that part of the problem may be that it's difficult to write practice questions for the NYMC section, and as a result we get really shitty practice questions.

AdamatUCF wrote:Just took the Barbri set of 13 NY MC questions for evidence. I got TWO right.

My confidence is shaken right now. I know it's only 10% of the bar, but my performance on the NYMC frightens me. My practice MBE was a bit above average, and most of my essays are 3-5, but I've got a pit in my stomach right now.

Thanks. And lol - I just got 2/13 right on evidence. I'm going to chalk it up to being pre-occupied because I just got an interview and was barely reading the questions. But still 2.... geeze. I think it's break time before doing the rest of these.

PitchO20 wrote:I did the same thing. 3/13 on Evidence in the NYMC and I did fairly well on it on the simulated MBE. I'm gonna hold off on the rest of the NYMC because it's just frustrating the hell out of me.

I think that part of the problem may be that it's difficult to write practice questions for the NYMC section, and as a result we get really shitty practice questions.

Thanks, 5ky. I actually feel much much better reading that.

Pitch020 and I seem similar. I did ok on the Simulated MBE in Evidence, and after getting 2/13, I stopped the NYMC cold because I was demoralized.

hannah87 wrote:I'm also considering purchasing the NCBE 3 exam pack. I'm unclear though, are those questions from previous exams or mock questions created by NCBE? For anyone that purchased, did you find them helpful?

It doesn't say so when click on the 3-pack but if you click on each practice test individually, it says they they are genuine MBE questions from recent administrations (but apparently not a complete prior MBE)